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2009-05-31

The future of lighting: flexible OLEDs in any shape and color

Once flexible OLED lighting can be produced on Roll-to-Roll, a load of new applications can be envisaged. Do it yourself lighting foil that you can cut in any shape you want. Or energy efficient camper lighting you can stick to the ceiling or walls. Holst Centre and its partners are world-leading in the domain by demonstrating a flexible OLED tile without the use of ITO and with printed shunting lines. Whats more, the 12x12cm2 white OLED tile can be cut as is shown in the movie.More at http://www.oled-display.net

2009-05-30

It looks like frozen smoke. And it's the lightest solid material on the planet. Aerogel insulates space suits, makes tennis rackets stronger and could be used one day to clean up oil spills. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Alex Gash shows us some remarkable properties of this truly unique substance.

A Solid That's Light as Air

Aerogel is the lightest solid known to science. It's also one of the most insulating materials on Earth, the most porous, and it's nearly transparent. Those last two properties made it an ideal choice for catching flecks of comet and interstellar dust on the recently-returned Stardust mission launched by NASA and JPL.

How is Aerogel Made?

The Start of an Aerogel: A Gel

Aerogel is the solid framework of a gel isolated from its liquid component, prepared in such a way as to preserve the framework’s pore structure (or at least most of it). In other words, aerogel is what would be left over if you could remove the liquid from a gel without it shrinking. This is most effectively done through a special technique called supercritical drying

2009-05-29

Carl Pisaturo, an applications engineer at Stanford, creates kinetic sculptures in his spare time that include a transmutoscope, a 3D photograph viewer, and two upper body bots with 21 servos in a series named "Slave Zero." His studio is named Area 2881 after his address and houses 400 sq. ft. of art and light. Visit Carl's site to see his work, which he claims is "a money sink."

Carl Pisaturo - light machines

Carl Pisaturo - robot arm

Each sculpture can take months to finish, with all parts custom-made by him."Fully custom mechanical objects with lighting can take a long time," says Pisaturo who does the machining for the metal himself, "from three months to two years in case of the slave robots."

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